Normally one would hardly suspect Joaquím Rodriguez (Katusha) to be one of the contenders for an ITT stage win, but the hilly parcours in Wednesday’s stage at the Tour de France clearly favoured the Spaniard who finished third on the day.

For a long time it looked as if Rodriguez might even claim a surprise win, but he ended up being bested by Chris Froome (Sky) by ten seconds and Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) by less than one second.

"I think I did a great performance in this ITT,” Rodriguez said. “At one moment I thought I could even take the victory. I lived the last metres of Contador's performance just as if I was watching the penalties of the Champions League final match. When I saw I lost from him by just 7 tenths of a second, I was very disappointed because he had the best time at the intermediate point, so I thought he was going to win and I took the second place by less than 1''. But then along came Froome and took the win, as predicted. Anyways, I'm very satisfied about my shape and I hope to do a great final part of Tour". 

In the general classification Rodriguez swapped places with Bauke Mollema (Belkin) to move up to 6th overall, 7’21” behind Froome.